The European Investment Fund (EIF) and MicroBank signed a EUR 50 million social entrepreneurship guarantee agreement in Spain on 7 March supported by the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), the core of the Investment Plan for Europe, or "Juncker Plan". The financing agreement, which was also made under the EU Programme for Employment and Social Innovation (EaSI), will allow MicroBank to launch a new product targeting 500 start-ups and developing social enterprises across Spain. Meanwhile, the European Investment Bank (EIB) announced on 6 March that it is lending EUR 12 million to the Alba County Regional Water Company to finance, in conjunction with Cohesion Policy funds, upgrades in drinking water supply and sanitation services for some 332,000 people in Romania’s Alba County. In France, the EIB and Groupe Iliad concluded a new financing agreement of EUR 300 million for deployment of fibre optic technology. On 1 March, the EIF and Crédal and Hefboom announced the signing of two social entrepreneurship guarantee agreements that will provide EUR 25 million in loans to 530 start-up and developing social enterprises across Belgium over the next 5 years. ING and the EIB agreed on 28 February to provide a EUR 110 million loan to finance Dutch ship management company Spliethoff Bevrachtingskantoor B.V.’s retrofitting of 42 vessels, part of a EUR 300 million joint EIB-ING green shipping partnership. The EIF and Vaekstfonden signed a new agreement on 28 February to establish a pilot programme that generates DKK 300 million (approx. EUR 40 million) in new financing for almost 80 SMEs in the cultural and creative sectors in Denmark, and is also supported by the EU budget under the “Creative Europe” Programme.